No Pairing Off on the BUS
by VocallyWritten
Summary: They all agreed it was a good idea. At this point they were all one big, dysfunctional family, and it would really just be weird for everyone if anyone were to do... that. Right? Then why was that simple rule so difficult to follow? Chapter 1: It was Skye and Ward's fault, really.
1. Chapter 1

It was Skye and Ward's fault, really.

About a year into kicking butt and taking names as Coulson's Dream Team, Coulson started noticing a couple of things that worried him. A lot. He had managed to ignore little things with his team since most of them were oblivious anyway, but this was just ridiculous. Fitzsimmons were entirely too flirty in the lab to be as productive as they should, but they were the very least of his problems. At least they did accomplish something. Now Skye and Ward on the other hand, they could barely function at all. If they weren't staring at each other longingly while the other's back was turned, they were fighting, and the UST coming off them in waves was really disrupting their missions. Honestly, Coulson could only tolerate so much, especially from a highly capable Level 7 like Ward who really should know better. He recognized that there was technically no rule prohibiting either couple from _fraternizing_ on their own time, but that didn't mean they could do anything on Coulson's plane either. So he did the only thing he could do in a situation like this: He called a team meeting.

Ward, ever punctual, was the first to arrive. "We got another mission already?" He asked, assuming a rigid military posture in his usual spot.

"No. Let's wait for the others to show up before I say anything." Coulson said mildly.

Ward gave him a strange look before schooling his face into a blanker expression, and nodded stiffly. Coulson supposed it was rather strange to be calling a meeting at 2230 hours with no obvious emergency going on, but he wouldn't tell Ward that, so he smiled pleasantly at the man before turning back to his notes. (And yes, Coulson had notes about his concerns. He had notes about almost everything that went down on the BUS. It's not weird.)

"-worst part of the entire movie! I really don't get why you like it so much." Fitz griped as both he and Jemma entered the room.

"It was a very touching moment, Fitz! I happen to like what they did with the characters in the reboot." Simmons crossed her arms defensively.

"Oh come off it._ Into Darkness_ will never hold a candle to_ Wrath of Khan_ and you know it," Fitz came to stand next to her, body facing Coulson, face rotated toward Simmons.

Ward made a small noise of disbelief in the back of his throat, causing both of them to snap their heads in his direction at exactly the same time. Coulson wonders if they practice. "Are you guys fighting about_ Star Trek_?" The young agent asked, really close to laughing.

"Only because it's Simmon's turn to pick the movie and for whatever reason she likes that sad excuse for a reboot." The rocket scientist mirrored Simmon's actions, looking particularly sullen in his space themed pajamas.

"You guys have a standing movie night?" Skye's amused voice came from the threshold. Coulson didn't miss the way Ward's eyes snapped to hers before looking away as quickly as he could. He also didn't miss Skye's blush, or the way she deliberately came to stand on Ward's other side.

Simmons was too busy talking to notice. "Since Uni," She began animatedly. "It's actually a very funny story. See Fitz had been talking about how he'd never seen-" She cut herself off at Coulson's pointed look, face flushing with embarrassment. "But we're not here to talk about that..." She trailed off awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot. "Sorry, sir."

Coulson smiled slightly. "It's quite alright Simmons. After all, we're still waiting on Agent May."

The group fell into an uncomfortable silence after that. Fitz and Simmons were doing that not-flirting-but-really-flirting thing with their eyes, and Coulson wonders if they even realize how not platonic their platonic relationship is. Skye and Ward are avoiding eye-contact all together. It is with all this in mind that he will _not_ feel guilty for calling this meeting because they brought it on themselves. SHIELD needs agents, not hormone-ridden teenagers, and the sooner he nips this in the bud, the better off everyone will be.

Mercifully, May enters the room a minute and thirty seven seconds after the conversation dies down. Not that Coulson was counting.

"Sorry I'm late," She deadpanned. "What's going on?"

"Not a problem, Agent May," He said, and if his smile was just bit brighter for her, he certainly didn't notice. Though, judging by the smirk on her face, Skye did. "I've called everyone in here to talk about something I've been thinking a lot about."

"You"re not retiring, are you?" Skye asked nervously. "Cause you are totally way too young to-"

"Thank you, Skye," He said before she could launch into a rant, or, even worse, some conspiracy about how SHIELD is forcing him to retire. "But I'm not retiring."

The young woman visibly relaxed at his reassurance.

"I wanted to talk to you all about..." He pulled at his tie, a teensy bit anxious. "Fraternization."

His team looked at him in shock. Clearly this was not what they were expecting.

"I know that SHIELD doesn't have any rules against, shall we call it, interoffice dating, but as we all know, things work a little differently on the BUS. With all of us living in such close quarters for extended periods of time, I think it would make our professional and personal lives easier if we all agree to not- ah- pair off."

He looked at his team expectantly for a moment before May spoke up. "I think it's a good idea," Her eyes flicked briefly to Ward and Skye. "Any relationships here would complicate our missions in ways we can't afford."

Skye nodded slowly. "Yeah, I mean, we're basically the SHIELD version of The Brady Bunch. It would just make everything complicated and weird."

"Agreed." Fitzsimmons said.

Ward inclined his head. "Yes, sir."

Coulson offered all of them another smile. "Glad we're all in agreement. Thank you for your time, you're all dismissed."

So he had finally said it. Not only had he said it, but they all agreed. He only hoped the hint was enough to stop all this none sense because if it didn't, he'd have to set Fury on them, and nobody would want that.

**A/N: Hey guys! hope you enjoyed the first chapter! This will be five chapters long, and I will hopefully update this story as frequently as I can. See you all soon!**

**Preview for chapter two:**

**It started out with a fight, but, then again, most things did with them.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Skye and Ward

It started out with a fight, but, then again, most things did with them.

According to Coulson's freakishly detailed notes, they had been a team for about a year and ten months when the fight to end all fights occurred.

Skye started it.

Ward knew she enjoyed riling him up, but that day, she showed him just how far she would go to do it. Now if this had been one of their normal, everyday fights, they would have gotten over it already. They never held grudges against each other for more than half an hour, and then they forgot about it and resumed their game of Battleship.

This time, Ward couldn't remember the last time he had been so mad, and he had held that crazy Asgardian rage stick. Skye had done something incredibly stupid and dangerous to prove a point. What was worse, she came out of it virtually unscathed and determined to push them all away. Coulson had always said how eerily similar Skye and May were, and this just drove his point home.

The mission had been pretty standard: Find the 0-8-4, retrieve it, and then let Fitzsimmons study (play with) it. Only, with them, missions are never standard, and Simmons had somehow been taken hostage by a crazed-alien-possessed nut job. And while literally everyone else had been trying to calm down a hysterical Fitz, Skye decided to sneak away with some idiotic idea of playing hero.

They found her nearly two hours later trudging back to the BUS with a bruised and bloody Simmons held tightly to her body. Fitz nearly fell over from a combination of shock for seeing Jemma so beat up and nearly unbearable relief that she was alive.

Skye had barely said anything since then. It was kind of freaking Grant out, to be honest.

The situation deteriorated even more when Skye had made it a point to only tell Coulson what had transpired because being her S.O. and her friend, he figured he had a right to know what had happened to her. Only, no one else seemed to agree.

"It's not like it really matters in the end, does it?" Fitz chided him when he tried to get Simmons to tell him what went down. Simmons, still a little in shock from her ordeal, could only nod in agreement. "The only people who really need to know are Coulson and Fury."

Ward wanted to retort that he _knew_ that, damn it, but he still had a right to know. Only, he really didn't. Sure they were friends, but Skye probably confided in Simmons, or even Coulson more than him. What claim did he have on her confidences? None. And for some reason, that revelation made him mad. At Fitz for being so annoyingly right. At Simmons, for agreeing with him. It made him mad at Skye, and at himself. But mostly himself.

Of course, Skye chose that moment to come ghosting around the corner, and the universe must really hate him because when she bumped into him, the motion aggravated some unseen injury and she sucked in a long breath before hissing at him.

"Watch where you're going," She snapped, trying to push away from him, but he won't have any of it, gently taking her arm and propelling her toward him.

His eyebrows scrunch up in worry, his previous anger forgotten as he inspects her for any obvious sign of harm. "Are you alright?"

And really, Grant should have known how bad of a question that was to ask, he really should have especially after seeing for himself how not alright she was.

Skye's eyes flashed with rage, the first real emotion she had betrayed since getting back. "No," She spat. "I'm not alright. I'm the opposite of alright. What a stupid question!" Hysteria seeped from her voice, infecting the air with raw, pungent emotion.

If Ward had been in a more rational state of mind, he might have realized she was just lashing out on him because she was scared. Instead, he bristled and retorted coldly. "Sorry if I offended you with my concern." Venom dripped from the last word, infecting Skye with the same hurt anger.

"Would you just leave me alone?" She yanked her arm from his grasp, attempting to brush past him.

"No," He folded his arms, standing directly in her way.

She mimicked him, shifting her weight to one foot, and glaring at him like she meant to incinerate him on the spot. "Move out of my way Ward." She said, her voice low and dangerous.

Ward didn't move an inch. "What happened out there?" He tried to soften his voice, but it still came out sounding like a demand.

Skye stiffened, her glare returning full force and fiercer than ever.

_Maybe Fitzsimmons could come up with a way to make looks really kill_, Grant thought offhandedly. _Skye would be a natural at it. _But then he'd be dead several times over, so maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea.

"Why are you pushing this?" There was a silent plea in her voice, a plea to just drop it. For him to understand how much she didn't want to talk about it, how she couldn't talk about it.

"Because I care about you, Skye." This time, he did manage to soften his voice and that might not have been the best idea because there's something in his voice, too. Some emotion he could identify if it didn't scare the hell out of him. This wasn't the time to breach that topic of conversation.

She shook her head slightly, backing away from him. "No, stop it."

He gripped his hair in sudden frustration. "Stop what?"

There was a beat of silence before she burst open all at once. "I can't do this anymore! I can't care. You shouldn't care. I cared about Simmons, and he used it against me."

Grant looked at her in shock. "What?"

"You wanted to know what happened in there?" She asked, her voice much lower, but no calmer. "He wanted to know where the 0-8-4 was, and when Simmons didn't tell him, he tried to get me to. But instead of torturing me like I thought he would, he went for Simmons all over again. Because I care too much. So I can't care so much anymore." She hung her head, tears pooling in her eyes. "Everyone I care about ends up leaving in one way or another, and I can't do it anymore."

Grant shook his head in disbelief. "So, what? You think you can just turn that off? Newsflash, you can't! You can't just turn off your emotions and decide not to give a damn anymore. That's not how it works."

Skye gave him a bitter smile. "Doesn't mean I can't try."

"Skye," He began carefully. "Don't do this. Don't shut us out because you're too afraid to feel anything."

"Just leave me alone, Ward." She said, painfully aware of how childish she sounded.

Just like that, Ward could feel her slipping away from him, and they may not be screaming at each other, but this was somehow infinitely worse. Although they had had their fair share of fights in the past, he never thought one of them could take her away from him.

"I can't." He said. "Because I care about you."

At that, Skye made a noise somewhere between a sob and a laugh, and grabbed the collar of his suit, dragging him down to her level. Before he could even register what was happening, her lips met his. The kiss was far too brief, only lasting a few seconds before she pulled back, a blush dusting her face.

"Sorry," She whispered, her face centimeters from his. "I-"

That was the moment Grant learned the best way to get Skye to stop talking, a marketable skill, he was sure. Instead of allowing her to continue, he closed the limited distance between them and reclaimed her lips.

When they finally came back up for air, Skye offered him a brilliant smile. "Being indifferent just got a whole lot harder."

Ward matched her smile with a grin of his own. "I should hope so." He teased.

"I'm still scared." She whispered.

He shook his head. "Don't be. None of us are going anywhere, least of all me."

Skye looked about close to tears when she smiled. "Good. I'm counting on that."

Then her smile dropped. "Uh, Grant? I think we just violated the BUS fraternization rule. Coulson's gonns be pissed."

Grant put a reassuring arm around her and shot a conspiratorial grin. "Only if he finds out."

Skye chuckled. "I'm such a bad influence on you. It's awesome."

"I'm sure you think so." He replied blandly, relishing in the way everything was getting back to normal.

Of course, it wasn't all fixed then. Skye had nightmares for weeks, and though she had nothing on Jemma who had them for two months straight, they made her reluctant to completely immerse herself in the group again. There was a hesitance about her that hadn't been there before. But little by little, she healed, she slowly got over her fears and let people in.

And with Grant there to help her along, she was finally content, finding the family she had wanted for so long in the process. At last, everything was perfect, or at least as perfect as it could be with her and Ward in a secret relationship. Give her a break, life with out complication is boring after all.

**A/N: First off, I just wanted to say thank you to all the people who reviewed. I was a bit overwhelmed by the huge response I got from this fic. Sorry it took so long to update, but if it makes you feel any better, I'm almost done with the next chapter and I'll be uploading within the week hopefully. My finals are coming up though, so I may not have the last two chapters done until after Christmas, but we'll see. Again, thank you so much for your support, it really helped me out when I was writing this. I'm not super sure about this chapter, especially the ending, but for some reason, Skyeward is a difficult pair for me to write for. Keep your eyes peeled for the next chapter! Fitxsimmons is my OTP so...**


End file.
